Spanning a career of four decades, John Divola’s work explores the limitations and conceptions of photography in order to challenge the boundaries between the abstract and the specific, reality and fiction. For Divola, photography functions as a unique medium that can allow space for the manipulation of the viewer’s perception and integration of performance within the photograph. Bringing Divola’s work, Flying/Falling(Five Prints Portfolio), into conversation with: Barnett Newman’s Vir Heroicus Sublimis, James Turrell’s Aural(Ganzfeld), and Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II, expands upon the inherent liminal properties of Divola’s work. Liminality is defined as occupying a position on, at, or on both sides of a threshold or boundary; generally relating to a transitional part of a process. Much like Flying/Falling, the companion pieces by Newman, Turrell, and Aphex Twin explore concepts of breaking, transforming, and/or expanding boundaries; whether those be conceptual, emotional, spatial, or mental boundaries. 

Within liminality, there are various states one can experience. Initially there is the immediate perceived spatial or environmental, this quickly has an effect on one’s mind and mental state, eliciting common feelings of disorientation, calm, weightlessness, or dread, or something else entirely. Sometimes, like in Turrell’s Aural, the special liminality is quite literal, where the viewer is physically set in a, frequently undefined, space. Viewing or experiencing a piece of liminality art can also stimulate a particular emotional or mental state or is even able to convey a particular kind of emotional or mental liminality. When experiencing this type of art, there might be a feeling of familiarity or connection to the piece, even if there is still a feeling of unease. Liminality is not something humans get to encounter often and it can’t be defined by one particular experience; it will always be different and difficult to explain. This collection of works is important because of that exact reason: it offers and illustrates a myriad of unique liminal experiences. Viewers may confront borders between reality and some dream-like state, grapple with attempting to understand the intangible, or simply be sensorially transported to another physical or mental environment. 

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In Vir Heroicus Sublimis, Newman attempts to capture “spirit and matter”: the intangible and tangible. The immense eighteen by eight feet canvas displays a color field of an expanse of deep red with five thin, vertical “zips” in different shades of complimenting colors. Newman describes the zips as “a field that brings life to the other fields, just as the other fields bring life to this so-called line”, essentially this engages the whole structure of the work and guides the viewer through the color fields, ensuring they do not get lost in the expanse of the pure visual field of color. This piece offers an experience of emotional and personal liminality, as the work is likened to a human encounter: there is a physical reaction to the person but also a metaphysical one, and “…if a meeting of people is meaningful, it affects both their lives.”(Newman).

Turrell’s work, including the Ganzfeld “Aural”, seeks to explore how we are living in a reality of our own creation which is defined by human’s contextual and cultural norms, and sensory limitations. Turrell’s chosen media is pure light, meaning his works reveal how we see our perceived reality based on our construction of all of the colors we see. According to Turrell, the most important aspect in his art is to create an experience of wordless thought; according to him, his work has no object, no image and no focus. In the Ganzfeld “Aural”, viewers are surrounded in a space that neither reveals its light source nor its dimensions. Light, space, and color merge together as the viewer’s eyes lose their frame of reference. As the light shifts and unfolds, viewers perceive the slightest stimuli, leading to a dreamlike experience as if walking through a thick fog, an expanse of snow, or a hazy dusk. Viewers are very clearly offered a physical, spatial, and environmental liminal experience, being surrounded by shifting light that doesn't seem to have a singular point or origin. Aural most certainly transforms the boundary of light and architecture to induce a pleasant, albeit possibly disorienting, feeling for the viewer.

James’ album, Selected Ambient Works Volume II(SAW II), is a 24-track album of beatless ambient music based on lucid dreaming. James likened the experience of the album to “standing in a power station on acid”, comparing the feeling of the surrounding electricity to a dreamlike experience or even that of a different dimension. Despite SAW II being objectively minimal compared to the first album, it holds its own tension between: trouble and calm, mutation and stasis, unsettling and calming. SAW II is a world in itself, able to be self-sufficient and allow the listener to enter the environment, to pass through a threshold and enter the cold but encompassing sounds of the album. This work of ambient music and sound creates an environment simply through audio, creating a sense of mental and emotional liminality. The sounds immediately communicate that the listener is in a different state entirely, yet it is constantly changing; the listener may feel where they are but never exactly know or understand what that means.

There is something both so satisfying and confusing about this concept and experience of liminality. It is not something to be defined by one happening; by its nature, this is not something that should be sought either. This is an exploration of liminality and some of its various states and an attempt to provide a basic guide for those curious.


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Bibliography:

“Barnett Newman”, Philadelphia Museum of Art. 6hhttps://www.philamuseum.org/micro_sites/exhibitions/newman/index.html.

“Barnett Newman. Vir Heroicus Sublimis. 1950-51 | MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79250. Accessed 16 Dec. 2021.

“Find out What This Masterpiece of American Abstraction Is All about. Barnett Newman’s Vir Heroicus Sublimis on #ArtEx”, GalleryIntell. https://galleryintell.com/artex/vir-heroicus-sublimis-barnett-newman/. 

Sakhno, Irina & Staruseva-Persheeva, Alexandra, “‘The eye listens’: light music and visual perceptions by James Turrell”. November 2019.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337603750_The_eye_listens_light_music_and_visual_perceptions_by_James_Turrell. 

“Exhibition ‘James Turrell: Aural’” Jewish Museum Berlin. https://www.jmberlin.de/en/exhibition-james-turrell-aural.

James Turrell, “James Turrell”. https://jamesturrell.com/about/introduction/.

David Toop, “Lost in Space”. March 1994. http://www.aphextwin.nu/learn/98136154898147.shtml.

“Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works Volume II”, Pitchfork. May 5, 2019. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/aphex-twin-selected-ambient-works-volume-ii/.

Bizzotto, Eliza. “The Well-Beloved: The Persistence of Liminality” The Hardy Society Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, 2013, pp. 22–37. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48562052.

Dominika Gąsiorowski, “Photographing the Unseen Mexico: Maya Goded’s Socially Engaged Documentaries”, 2018. JSTOR. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv16km1tv.8. 

Image/Media List:

Vir Heroicus Sublimis- https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79250

Ganzfeld, "Aural"- https://www.dwell.com/article/passages-of-light-james-turrell-museo-jumex-f19f1964/6607625028779483136 

Selected Ambient Works Volume II- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k8fVoZD5xpuVKH3a82A3bNdbB2a4qd39A